<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Memories by daraenss</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25922878">Memories</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/daraenss/pseuds/daraenss'>daraenss</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword &amp; Shield | Pokemon Sword &amp; Shield Versions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Champion Yuuri | Gloria, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Gym Challenges (Pokemon), Happy Ending, Leon's burdens, Light Angst, Lionheartshipping, One Shot, Post-Game, Reminiscing, Sad with a Happy Ending</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:01:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,496</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25922878</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/daraenss/pseuds/daraenss</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Leon was visiting Sonia at the lab as per usual. That day, however, they start reminiscing over the past. More specifically, over their Gym Challenge. Leon's shares his burdens with Sonia.</p><p>The weight of the crown left many thorns in Leon's life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dande | Leon/Sonia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Memories</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>"I should just quit once and for all!” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> The cries of a young trainer echoed throughout the changing room of what seemed like a theater—the Fairy-type gym. She didn’t have her loyal companion by her side, as her Yamper was resting in its Pokéball, defeated after a short battle. From the start, it was obvious that she didn’t stand a chance against Gym Leader Opal. Beside her, a boy of the same age as her, with purple hair, was trying to comfort her. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “You don’t mean it, right, Sonia?” the boy asked. “We… We promised to face each other in the semi-finals!” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I can’t do it!” she answered, sobbing and trying to wipe away her tears. “Leon, we both know that I’m not a good trainer… I simply cannot do it!” </em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em> “And we have before your very eyes our new Champion—Gym Challenger Leon!” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> The loud cheering of the crowd became even more intense when the Champion’s last Pokémon was beaten to a dust by a 10 years old kid, endorsed by the Chairman, with his partner Charizard. Maybe it was the hot temperature after an important battle, or the cries of the spectators that were going wild, the tiring sweat and the excitement for making a wish come true; but Gym Challenger Leon—no, Champion Leon was getting even more pumped up than usual. He smiled at the cameraman who was broadcasting the battle across all of Galar. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> In the crowd, a young girl, with red hair in a ponytail, was looking at the new Champion. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I’m happy that you won, Leon,” the girl said. A cute little Yamper was laying on her lap. “Guess I didn’t stand a chance.” The bittersweetness of her voice was overshadowed by a sigh. </em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The sound of tea being poured into a cup was something Sonia could never get tired of. Since she became the new Pokémon Professor, she spent all her time inside of Wedgehurst's lab, but she was as lonely as she could be. Nonetheless, every time Leon came to visit, he managed to light up the lab.</p><p> </p><p>After giving up his title of Champion, Leon had more time than ever to see his favorite professor. He made sure to visit her each day after spending the whole day at the Battle Tower, and needless to say, he looked more happy than ever—he looked more real, like if he didn’t have to put on fake smiles anymore. And he wanted to spend more time with her childhood friend to make up for those years that he left her alone to fulfill his responsibilities as the Champion.</p><p> </p><p>“—And then, Charizard went like ‘WHOOSH’ in the air!” As he was telling his story, he started laughing uncontrollably.</p><p> </p><p>What did ‘went like WHOOSH’ mean, anyway? Guess some things never changed.</p><p> </p><p>Sonia gave Leon a cup of tea, which he accepted with pleasure. He couldn’t understand how every single thing that Sonia made could be so delicious, so he was glad to accept anything from her.</p><p> </p><p>“You ALWAYS have the craziest stories, Leon,” Sonia replied, laughing alongside him, and taking a seat in front of him. “Did anything else happen today? It looks like the Tower is a lot of fun!”</p><p> </p><p>“Well…” For a moment, Leon’s gaze turned more serious in the blink of an eye. After all, something else DID happen that day. “Gloria came to visit.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, she did?” Sonia asked, genuinely surprised. After all, Champions didn’t have time to waste.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes.” Leon’s voice was so unexpectedly serious, that it was alarming. “She asked me if I ever <em> regretted </em>being the Champion.”</p><p> </p><p>“I see…” Sonia sipped her tea. The new topic of conversation was seemingly different from the last one, and Leon looked like a different man. “And… what did you say? Did you regret being the Champion?”</p><p> </p><p>“I… I’m not sure,” Leon said, sighing afterwards, leaning back in his chair. He stared at a blank point for a few seconds, coming back to Earth after gulping. “Gloria said that she still felt a little guilty for what happened to Hop, Marnie and Bede… they all wanted to be the Champion, and she crushed their dreams. The burden is too much for her sometimes.”</p><p> </p><p>The weight of the crown was something that Leon was used to. The cape that once was too big for him sheltered him during the coldest nights, as that was his only companion in the lonely road of a Champion. He understood Gloria maybe too much, so he offered his help and advice everytime the opportunity showed up. He didn’t want her to go through the way of the lonely king, a path of thorns that were hidden under the flashy smiles that he had to put in front of the cameras. The years managed to numb the pain, but that wasn’t a reason to just let a kid like Gloria bear all those burdens by herself.</p><p> </p><p>But that wasn’t all. Leon also understood the fear of crushing someone else’s dream. He knew Gloria was dragged along by Hop, and she quickly bested him. He could see himself in the now-Champion, who started as a nobody in Postwick and now was leagues ahead of everyone, beating the reigning Champion on the first try. It felt nice on the outside—the thrill of the victory, the crowd cheering his name and the sweat covering his fears; but on the inside, he knew he had to leave many people behind in order to wear the crown of the king.</p><p> </p><p>That woman, that was standing in front of him, was one of the many people that were left behind. And everytime he visited her in the lab while being the Champion, seeing her calling herself just a mere assistant and nothing else, felt like a new thorn in the crown.</p><p> </p><p>He often thought that, if he didn’t exist, if he hadn’t tried the Gym Challenge, maybe Sonia could have fulfilled her dreams of becoming a trainer… If he disappeared like thin air, maybe Sonia wouldn’t be so sad sometimes. Maybe it was his fault that Sonia couldn’t see the good in her, to the point of thinking she wasn’t useful at all.</p><p> </p><p>“Sonia…” Leon said after a while. He knew that Sonia answered his previous statement, yet he couldn’t listen over the echo of his own fears that still troubled him sometimes.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes?”</p><p> </p><p>“Did I ever… crush your dreams?”</p><p> </p><p>That thought had been killing him on the inside for a very long time, ever since he became the Champion. That was the very first thorn on his crown. Restless nights where he could only think he had destroyed someone else’s goals—the weight of the crown was, maybe, too much for his shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>Sonia looked at the past. She looked at that little girl who once stood on a stadium, where the cries of the crowd deafen anything else, with many other trainers who had the same dream: becoming the Champion.</p><p>She looked at the girl who always lost against her rival. The girl who tried her hardest until the very end, when she couldn't take it anymore and gave up. That girl, who had her road traced, but the rain of insecurities muddled the way to the point where she got lost. She looked at all those wasted years and the battles against herself.</p><p> </p><p>But now, she also looked at the present. She could see that fancy lab, all those books under her name and those investigations guided by her hand. And she smiled. She smiled proudly.</p><p> </p><p>That girl, who once had a bittersweet smile, seeing her rival with a crown and a cape too big for him, now could see pride in her face.</p><p> </p><p>She looked at the man in front of him. The same king that many feared. That man that everyone put on a pedestal, so far away from everyone else, that he became separated from the people that put him there in the first place. But Sonia, even if she was the always-losing rival, could reach him. She could feel him and know he was a normal person on the inside, with his own set of fears and insecurities, just like her.</p><p> </p><p>At that moment, she realized she was never lost. Her road was never muddy to the point of being unable to know where to go. The rain, that was once her downfall, was part of the journey she had to face. Those bitter years were part of the way that would take her to where she was standing now. No, she was never lost. She was exactly where she was meant to be.</p><p> </p><p>“You didn’t crush anything, Leon.”</p><p> </p><p>And she smiled proudly. It made her happy knowing that he, in fact, didn’t destroy anything in her. Rather, he helped her grow and turn into the woman that she was today.</p><p> </p><p>“So, wanna tell me another crazy story before dinner?”</p><p> </p><p>She smiled proudly because he still was in her life.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello! Thank you for reading!!</p><p>This is my first fic here. For a long time I wanted to talk about how Leon felt about being the Champion and what he thought about it after losing the title. After all, it wasn't an easy road. I also wanted to talk about Sonia's experience during the Gym Challenge and how he looked at her past self after becoming the Professor.</p><p>Also, English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes--</p><p>I will be uploading more fics, so any support is appreciated!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>